On the 12th the boys and I were up nice and early to have a little stroll along the banks of the River Crouch before the temperature got too hot. There was a little light rain in the air when we got there but that didn’t deter us as we wandered the pathway to the right of the steps. It was a lovely little walk but not much to speak about, or take pictures of, to be honest. The boys loved it though, as only they can.
On the 13th we ventured over the ‘Secret Fields’ as we had not visited there for a while. It had rained overnight so the long grass was still soaking wet but fortunately I had put my over trousers on so it made no difference to me and the boys don’t care whether they get wet or not they enjoy themselves no matter what the weather throws at them. There was a lot of butterflies fluttering around the fields so I spent most of my time failing to take pictures of them. The Burdocks that I took pictures of a few weeks back had gone to seed now and the stems which hold the seed heads had grown to over 6 foot tall in places and have these odd looking thistle type pods on them.
THE BOYS HAVING A REST 
POPPIES 
BURDOCK 
BURDOCK SEEDHEADS 
BURDOCK 
BEE AND THISTLES 
MARBLED WHITE BUTTERFLY
On the 14th we took a wander around Wakering Common, which although small is a nice place to wander around. I have written about this place before and you can read more about it HERE. Whilst walking through the few small stands of trees, growing on the common, everywhere I looked seemed to be mushrooms growing. Now anyone who has been following this blog will know that I love spotting, taking pictures off and learning about the various species of fungi that grow in the UK. I found 3 different species on this walk, CANDOLLEOCYES, PARASOLA PLICATILIS AND STEREUM OSTREA and all of them seemed to be growing strongly and in numbers. I have found other species here before and hope to find more this autumn.
CANDOLLEOMYCES 
STEREUM OSTREA 
PARASOLA PLICATILIS
